Tag Archives: tired

Interviews are the GCSE exams of adult life. Funnily enough I quite enjoy exams, and yet this week (which has felt like interview galore) made me realise I don’t hugely enjoy being interviewed. It’s not so much the awkward trying-to-figure-out-the-appropriate-strength-to-clench-someone’s-hand with, at the beginning as the; sitting across from people and having no real idea what they’re thinking, that makes me squirm. Then it’s the wait to find out how well you performed to make matters worse…

Every phone call makes you jump.

Every email makes your heart race.

You spend all day bracing yourself for the worst and wishing you could escape this stage of the process.

I guess this is why a lot of people hate interviews, and probably why many Earthlings, hate exams. We’re all very aware that they’re a necessary evil to progressing in life, the mandatory hoop that we all have to jump through, and yet sometimes we feel that the bar is set so high and that we’re never ever going to succeed, that we don’t even try.

Problematic?

Definitely.

If we are so afraid of failure that we don’t endeavour to pass, how will we ever get to the destinations we desire?

The consequences worsen once we start to look at our walks with Christ as one long test and our faithful God becomes the quizmaster. Yes, one day God will judge us (James 4:12), there’s no secret that we are supposed to obey the rules God has put in place for us (John 14:15), but that doesn’t give us a reason to put our journeys with God in the ‘passing a test’ category. Could it be that some of us don’t even try with God because we are so sure we aren’t going to ‘perform well’ in the test of life, we give up trying to ‘live right’ and accept the distance we feel from God as ‘our lot’ in life?

The difference between a life long interview and our walk with God is that God isn’t sitting across the table from us, marking us on what we say/do, God is sitting right next to us whispering all the answers in our ears. Having an open book test is never going to be as scary as going into the exam hall knowing everything depends on how much you can remember. God wants you to succeed in this race, he walks with you every step of the way because he cares that you get to the very spot that he destined you to arrive at.

Don’t give up on God because you feel it’s not worth the effort. No matter how many times you feel like you’ve flopped and the interview has turned sour, remember that God will never leave you nor forsake you.

Be strong and courageous! Do not fear or tremble before them, for the Lord your God is the one who is going with you. He will not fail you or abandon you!” Deuteronomy 31:6

Why do we associate joy with youth? I remember at school, coming in with a smile on my face (yes I was one of those neeks that quite enjoyed education) and teachers used to comment on how good it must feel to be young. Having never been 45 with a spouse, children and mortgage, I had no real defence for the suggestion that I could only be jovial because I was still a teen. It was the same when I had my first taste of the world of work. People would come in everyday and complain about the very same problems they grumbled about yesterday, whilst I struggled to add to the conversation. When it came to my turn they’d look at me in half wonder and tell me that I should enjoy these days because it really doesn’t get better than this.

What does that even mean?!

How can you tell me life doesn’t get any better than education?!

I’ve heard so many people say that being in Uni are the best days of life. If that’s the case, having recently graduated then I think I might just throw in the towel now. So why do we get so grumpy as life goes on? We start nursery missing our mums but overall happy to be there, primary school isn’t a chore because it’s pretty much always play time, and by the time we get to secondary school we’re so obsessed with the opposite sex and finding out what group of friends we want to belong to, the monogamy of going to school everyday doesn’t get a chance to drag you down. Then what happens, we leave the education system and suddenly our cups transform from half full to half empty??

I for one refuse for that to be the case. I guess ‘life hasn’t ‘hit’ me yet at the tender age of 22, but I think a big influence of our mood comes with the perspective we choose. And yes I said choose! You don’t have to think about starving children in Africa to realise that you have so much to be grateful for.

Give thanks to the Lord , for he is good and his loyal love endures! Psalms 118:29

Sometimes I find myself swimming in a pool of complaints and then all the guilt floods in. This week I’m trying something new!

I’ve become so fat that you could roll me down a hill I thank you God that I’ve gained enough wait to probably save a small fortune on my heating bill this month

I don’t have enough money to feed my eating out addiction thanks Lord for the opportunity to become a wizz in the kitchen

I’m too busy to spend time with all my friends I’m so grateful that I have a job that I enjoy spending time at

We could all find reasons to complain but that shouldn’t stop us from giving thanks to God.

I’m so grateful that God’s love endures forever. No matter how many times I disappoint or neglect my Heavenly Father, he’s always awaiting my return with open arms. There’s nothing you can do to separate yourself from the love of God, no matter how bad the weather gets, how annoying your family can be, and how tired work makes you feel, you can always give thanks for that.

Have you ever been through a time in your life where you just felt like everything was crashing down? That time is especially difficult as a Christian because you can’t help but question God and ask Him what exactly he’s trying to do to you. Throughout the Bible although we see bad things happening to good people, we also see God equipping His people so that they can fight another day.

Pressed but not crushed Cans cannot withstand the pressure exerted upon them during the recycling process; they’re inevitably crushed. Close your eyes and imagine that you’re a can (you didn’t close your eyes, right? Neither did I lol). Life will try to crush you, it will try to take away your childhood dreams, to mock your hope and to make you settle for mediocrity. It’s your job to withstand the pressure. Don’t be like the can which is inevitably crushed because of the pressure being exerted upon it. Though our bodies may become weak, our minds and spirits are far more powerful than we think. Have you ever gotten through a tough season in your life, looked back a year later and thought ‘how did I get through that?!’ We don’t know how strong we are until are pressed on every side. During that season we feel like we are dying a slow and painful death, but every time we get into bed and sleep, we don’t realise that we have survived a day we didn’t think we could face.

Perplexed but not driven to despair We experience perplexity. I mean, yesterday, you were chilling; your greatest worry was what you were going to wear to the clurrrrb on Saturday night (if you’re still into that). 12 hours later, you get an essay mark which completely breaks your average and makes the attainment of a 2:1 impossible. What do you do?

Worry

Think about the jobs you’ll never get

Cry

Scream

Give up

Things are going to happen that completely throw us off course and cause us to be perplexed but that does not mean we have to be driven to despair.

Hunted down but never abandoned The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) Those are his aims. Since you’ve joined #TeamMostHigh #TeamJesus, #TeamSaved and #TeamSovereign, you are now on the opposing team. You are going to be hunted down; problems you thought you would never encounter are gonna spring out of nowhere and you are going to have to face them. But you are never, ever, ever alone. God will never abandon you. Yeah, the devil will try to isolate you; he will make you feel that no one cares about you or understands what you are going through but those are all lies. God cares for you. He doesn’t take days off. He’s always there and he loves you very much.

Knocked down but not destroyedSometimes the devil might be successful and you may get knocked down, you may fall, you may sin, you may do the thing you swore you’d never do again.

Guess what?

Your worst moment does not have the power to define you. Get up. The longer you lie on there on the floor, thinking about what a horrible person you are, the weaker and more vulnerable you become. So get up. Run with God, let him renew you and fill you up again so that you can withstand the battles that lie ahead.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.